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From its Table of Contents, “Radical Markets” might seem to be a meandering hodgepodge of thought experiments. Each chapter elaborates on specific and unexpected areas where “radical markets” might be introduced in their current absence, but the interrelation of these case studies and policy proposals can appear tenuous. Book projects in the social sciences are typically deep elaborations on a tight substantive areas. However, the contrasting breadth of “Radical Markets” isn’t an overreach beyond appropriate area-expertise. Rather, each topic and chapter maps to ongoing published papers and academic projects, reflecting the span of the authors’ recent research careers.
Modern economics increasingly occupies itself with tight empirical identification and meticulous mathematical models. Meanwhile, Posner and Weyl audaciously use “Radical Markets” to expound on topics like the inherent justifiability of private property or equal-vote democracy. The key to understanding this approach — and the authors’ research agendas generally — lies in the book’s introduction and conclusion. There, Posner and Weyl harken back to a cast of figures that they dub the “Philosophical Radicals”, including post-enlightenment Political Economists like Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, and Henry George, as well as more controversial thinkers like Karl Marx (*collective gasp*) and Ludwig von Mises (*aghast gasp*). In orthodox economics, these figures are treated like Pre-Newtonian physicists or medieval scholastics. In heterodox circles, they serve as rallying points for hopelessly opposed camps of partisans. Posner and Weyl instead evoke these thinkers for their common commitment to questioning the inefficient public institutions of their day, no matter how entrenched and inevitable they may have seemed. Even though the modern liberal democratic order is a product of these thinkers’ astounding success, the authors suggest that our present day calls for its own cadre of questioning “Radical Philosophers” with unexpected disruptive ideas.
Among those the authors dub the “technocratic middle”, this exercise might seem unnecessary. Modern “neoliberal” types seem to take Fukuyama’s “end of history” seriously in its broad strokes. When I glossed the premise of “Radical Markets” to one such friend (pursuing an economics PhD), he suggested that we’re in an era of diminishing marginal returns for new ideas — better to carefully tinker and keep the machine of modernity humming along. Posner and Weyl destabilize this intellectual complacency in “Radical Markets”. First, they use their introduction to synthesize a wealth of contemporary research suggesting that the liberal order is threatened by rising inequality, stagnation, polarization, nativism, and coercive market power. In the “meat” of the work that follows, the authors convincingly argue that institutions we take for granted are both hopelessly inefficient/inequitable and theoretically substitutable. The authors argue that these alternative — including continuous auctions for property and an alternative voting scheme based on the Vickrey-Clarke-Groves mechanism — could both help address present social ills and build towards a brighter future that’s inconceivable in the same way today’s world would have seemed far-fetched in the 18th century.
“Radical Markets” doesn’t provide a flawless utopian vision for tomorrow’s brave new world. The authors openly demur on the merit of their proposals, suggesting a gradual and iterative path for implementation to help forestall the disasters that occur when humans act unexpectedly in new institutional settings. This seems advisable. The concerns of critics on both ethical and practical grounds are worth listening to. Care should be taken in pursuing alternatives to systems that presently provide a basic bulwark against inefficiency or violations of human rights. Posner and Weyl, however, are right to point out the status quo is already a moral disaster on many dimensions, inattentive as it is to unjustly appropriated wealth, violations of meaningful minority rights, and abhorrent intra- and international income inequality. The authors are shouting from their platform that the Emperor has no clothes, and suggesting he put on a coat. Critics may argue vehemently for pants instead, but have basically ceded to the authors’ premise that present public institutions are unjustifiable and ought to be uprooted for a more just society.
I’ve been exposed to most of the ideas covered in “Radical Markets” ahead of time through lectures, working papers, op-eds, and casual conversations. My first reaction is usually dismissive, given how decently capitalism and democracy seem to be doing in their broad strokes. In the months and years that followed these encounters, Posner and Weyl’s ideas have come to roost and relentlessly gnaw at this initial skepticism, especially when I’m forced to reckon with the many failings of the present liberal order. I’d encourage other doubtful readers to let the ideas presented here stew in a similar fashion before jumping to conclusions. The parallel to Socrates introduced earlier fits in the following sense: some of Posner and Weyl’s proposals may smack of dystopia in the same way his ideal “Republic” does, and perhaps justifiably so in cases. However, taking the time to engage seriously with the authors’ ideas can leave anyone feeling a little bit like Socrates’ unfortunate interlocutors, and they will be made better thinkers for it. In a world where little matters like ideas do, “Radical Markets” provides the most articulate and accessible package of the authors’ radical ideas to date. Therefore, I enthusiastically recommend picking up a copy, and hope you find the journey as thought-provoking as I have.
- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Princeton University Press (May 15, 2018)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0691177503
- ISBN-13: 978-0691177502
- Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1 x 8.8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
- Customer Reviews: 58 customer ratings
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#185,073 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #179 in Free Enterprise & Capitalism
- #52 in Libertarianism
- #350 in Theory of Economics
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